New York

New York was absolutely amazing.

First of all, I will be living here some day.

Second of all, I felt like a princess (or queen rather).

Third of all, there was a feeling of accomplishment running through my veins while descending the staircase at the Plaza Hotel. There I was with my hand running down the golden decorated handrails. I kept on thinking of the vast contrast from where I was now and from where I had come from. It is possible! Moving from trailer, to home made house with plywood from the local lumber yard in a town with a population of 3,000 (on a good day), on a highway with a name like Chumstick Hwy to descending (a little less than gracefully) the spiral staircase at the Plaza downtown New York City and viewing Phantom of the Opera 7th row Center. I’ve really come a long way. Not nearly as far as I desire to, but surpassed way more than I ever thought possible. All the help and support I’ve received along the way from every single person I’ve ever encountered in my life has helped a minute here, a dollar there, a hug there – they’re all great! From the hugs and rides into town, from someone as important as the madre to the poor unfortunate soul whom I accost for 23 seconds while ordering my coffee (at 190 degrees of course), and all those in between, has a made such a positive impact whether they know it or not.

The amazingness of Nueva York! I can’t believe how much we packed into 4 days. It was a whirlwind of excitement, new things and adventures, one beautiful building after the other, sunny skies, misty clouds, fun aunt and sharing, TOO MUCH FOOD, and feeling like a princess. I LITERALLY did walk the “red carpet”. For the first time in my life the literal (not make believe) red carpet was displayed for all upon entry into the Plaza Hotel Lobby. And that’s really a true statement: anyone who is anyone is worthy to walk the “red carpet.”

Man did my trooper of an aunt troop around like a rock star. We did SO much. Basically anything possible in four days, plus we were safe, healthy, and had a world of fun. Starting with…..

…..the arrival: First of all it was in JF’ FREAKING K! ☺

The ride was rocky and a little rainy. The crowd started clapping when the pilot landed safely on the wet cement. I was glad and my blood drained clenched hands unfolded and ran through my hair. Pretending a bit to be used to it and totally calm, but my stomach was a bit upchurned.

We stayed in a hotel (Holiday Inn to be exact) in Queens. Perfect location! Aunt Laura and I decided a good phrase or word to describe the neighborhood was “tired” or “burnt out.” It was strange, but perfect. A cutesy little, cliché independent Greek owned café sat on the corner which constantly blasted 80’s jams and served Gyros and Coffee for breakfast became a good 3 day friend.

The first night we threw our bags in the room and hit up Times Square. Man let me just share with you the amazingness of Times Square on a Friday night! It was full of lights, fun people, interesting sounds, delicious (and some not) smells, people of all ages, colors, smells again, and all! It was up beat and fantastic. Tall, shiny and antique buildings loomed everywhere. There were fluorescent bright and eye catching promotions, adverts, signs and the whole nine yards. It was a high never before felt. It was all from manic (in a good way) energy and commerce to UTMOST EXTREME!

We ate at a cutesy lil’ diner called” The Finer Diner”. On the way to the bathroom I heard two different accents and another language. It was fantastic.

We cruised around and took in all the sights. We were thrown into the true creole ( a real life Melting Pot) of America.

Home again home again to the tall Green Holiday Inn beacon in Log Island City Queens, NY.

Day 2 (First full day): Spent the day with one of Laura’s friends from San Fran. We spent the day moseying around Greenwich Village (which is WHERE ILL BE LIVING! It’s perfect! The arrangement of the blocks, size of the buildings, studios feel (NYU is right close in Washington Square), fun young crowd, cute restaurants, cultural smells, plus mas!) We had lunch at this GREAT Mediterranean place where we indulged in DELICIOUS hummous and pita bread. Right there on the corner with a fabulous view of the multitude of humans trekking about their daily lives. We saw the upper village, lower village and middle village. All of a sudden while buying post card stamps I remembered I had a friend from my third year in college who had moved to New York a few years back so I thought I’d see if he had the same number. Turns out he did and we all ended up having some coffee and sharing stories at this totally fun red and gold themed wine/coffee/pastry shop. We had coffee here, lunch there, and laughs all around that day. An earlier evening, which was totally fine. Hit the gym at the hotel and crashed pretty early.

Day 3: Met up with Laura’s college friend, Jeff on 57th and Lexingington Ave. Riding the escalator up onto the st. and the first thing you can see is the big Bloomingdales sign on Lexington Ave. is amazing! Thoughts of Friends kept running through my head (It was Rachel’s first job you know….) (I’m still fascinated by the length and size of the city and the amazing buildings which line all the streets and slice through the sky).

We took the metro up to where the US open was being played and talked to some crazies and took some pictures of the US OPEN signs. – Got free Greek Yogurt and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL sun.

First planned stop was the Original Tiffany’s & Co. ( I could see the sign as I slowly and creepily dragged my hand across the stone side of the Victoria Secret store). Took some pictures in front and checked off another box on my list of things to do before I die. Pictures of more amazingly designed monstrous buildings. Enjoyed some time frolicking through The Plaza hotel (while one of my favorite movies Big Business buzzed through my head). Then a nice little walk: through central park (where we saw Dr. Phil getting all jazzed up with his make up and hair goo) and ending up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Zoomed on up to the roof and enjoyed a summer time exhibit while viewing one of the most amazing vistas EVER of the skyline of NY from the top o the Met.

Subway up to the Harlem. Man that was a culture shock! Seriously. It contains all “normal” stores: Marshalls, Old Navy, Burger King, etc. However they have been “modified” to meet their surrounding personnel. We saw the Apollo Theatre and I was on a quest to find some super cheap black flip-flops (to ease the pain to my poor elephant size feet’s blisters).

Then we took the subway to Little Italy to find some fun authentic Italian Goodness. And oh boy, did we! We ran into a festival to celebrate the patron st. of Naples, Gennaro. The streets were lined with vendors selling fried Oreos, Twinkies, mozzerella, and bottomless Pina Coladas in Coconut shells. It was PACKED with people and so many languages filtered all around. We found a great little placed, right on the corner. It was half inside, half on the side walk and half-covered with a tarp. Three halves? Whatever. 1/3 inside, 13 on the sidewalk and 1/3 under cover. I had a yummy chew seafood salad and we saw a waiter have a seizure. Life moved on: the Italian lady owner yelled at some people to call the police and our waiter continued to shove our mouths into smiles to finish the picture he was taking. Wine, Martini, good conversation and then peaced on out back up to our hotel and slept like an f’ing baby.

Day 3: Up early again! But for good reason. Today was “on the water day”!!! We took the metro down to the point of the island, where Battery Park is and embarked on a sea voyage. Well it was not nearly as long as the ones the immigrants from Italy, Sweden, Croatia, etc took, but maybe kinda the same….??Lucky us, we took the ferry to Liberty Island and saw her, her self in person, in green stone person. Then Ellis Island where we explored the wings of “Mental Testing” and “ Registry” for the immigrants coming over. Back onto the mainland and took the subway up back into Times Square for our amazing Broadway theatre experience.

To start off with, I don’t know how it happened, but I was picking up our tickets from Will Call and um….the guy behind the desk just said “lemme upgrade your seats a bit.” So, after buying them online (with a promotional coupon code) we were able to get far back (but not too bad) middle side section seats for a decent price. For some reason out of the clear blue sky he upgraded us to 7th row CENTER! It was unbelievable! WE didn’t have that much time so we shoveled some Italian grub into our traps, changed shoes under the table and jaunted back to the famous Majestic Theatre. We got to see…..Phantom of the Opera!!! It was incredible! The lights, the effects, the stage, lightening, singing, acting, backgrounds, sets, and we were so close we could really see the actors expressions and see the orchestra conductors arms flailing about.

Day 4 (practice on the short’n’sweetness):

-Rockefeller Centar, two white shirt changes (coffee stains. Yeah, that’s right Aunt Laura, I had another one on the plane).

- Museum of Modern Art.

- Coffee and perfect Sushi lunch.

- Fancy town car back to airport and safely made it to Madrid!

Ok so now that I’m reading this, this is entirely too long. I promise the next emails will be wayyyy less than 1667 words.

My apologies.

Now in Madrid. Short and sweet email later.

Hope everyone is well.

Much love and many thanks!